Overview

As the systems which form the fabric of modern society become more complex and more interdependent, the need for the understanding of the behavior of such systems becomes increasingly more essential. What are the causes and possible cures for the worldwide inflation which is posing a serious threat to the economic stability and social order of both developed and underdeveloped countries? What are the trade-offs between the urgent need for additional sources of energy and the risks posed by the proliferation of nuclear reactors? How can one devise mass transportation systems which are fast, comforta- ble, convenient, and yet not prohibitively expensive? These issues are but some of the more visible problems posed by what might be called the crisis of undercoordination--a crisis rooted in the widen- ing gap between the degree of interdependence in the systems of modern society and the degree of coordination which libertarian societies are willing to tolerate. The disquieting implication of this crisis is that to achieve stability through coordination may necessitate the imposition of pervasive controls which may be hard to accept by societies steeped in the democratic tradition. Viewed in this perspective, the need for developing a better understanding of the behavior of large-scale societal systems presents a problem of much more than purely academic importance.

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